Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield are providing an update on the latest Covid-19 outbreak.

Auckland has entered its second day of alert level 3 lockdown, with a decision imminent on whether or not to extend it before Friday midnight, when the order is due to end. The rest of New Zealand is at level 2, and aged care facilities are in lockdown nationwide.

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Watch the briefing here:

Latest from live update:

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The three news cases associated with Americold cold stores have been confirmed to RNZ by the company.
Along with the Mt Albert Grammar student confirmed this morning, that makes at least four confirmed cases.
The Prime Minister and Director-General of Health will update the public with the latest details about the Covid-19 outbreak in around 30 minutes.
A full Cabinet meeting is scheduled for tomorrow to decide whether to increase restrictions in Auckland or extend them around the country.
Vehicles are being turned away from the Claudelands testing station in Hamilton following high-demand.
About 150 cars are waiting inside the centre and others arriving are being sent away at the gate by a security guard and told to come back tomorrow.
A women who didn’t want to be identified says she waited all day yesterday and arrived at 8am this morning.
Our reporter in Hamilton says people were told they were allowed to leave their cars in the queue and go to a nearby shopping centre for lunch.
The 1pm daily briefing with prime minister Jacinda Ardern and Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield just moments away.
Dr Bloomfield says he has “quite a bit of information to impart today”.
“There is no blame of shame in having Covid-19, the virus is the problem.” – Dr Bloomfield.
1 new case in managed isolation, a woman in her 30s who arrived from the Philippines.
Total number of active cases (both in managed isolation/quarantine and in the community) in New Zealand is 36.
All the community cases are linked and being treated as a cluster.
One of the new cases is a student at Mt Albert Grammar School, as was made public this morning.
“The student was not symptomatic while at school and has not been at school since they became unwell and got tested so the chance of exposure … is low at this point.” – Dr Bloomfield.
Three of the people who have tested positive are workers at Americold, and seven are family members of the initial cases.
One person who has tested positive is an employee of Finance Now, and another person who has tested positive is their family member. There is also one new probable case in the community, which is also linked to the outbreak.
Dr Bloomfield says all new positive cases will now be treated in quarantine facilities. “It will help us avoid any further inadvertent spread.”
Laboratories processed 6006 tests yesterday. He says the total swabs collected yesterday was well over 10,000 but because the cutoff time for reporting is midnight not all of the results have been included.

Two more popup testing sites have been stood up in Henderson and Airport Oaks.

The testing centres in Rotorua and Taupō have extended their hours.
One of the people who has tested positive visited an aged care facility in Waikato. Anyone who has visited recently will be notified.
13 new confirmed cases in the community – all are in Auckland and are linked to the four people confirmed on Tuesday.
About the visit to Rotorua: the family checked in to Waiora Lakeside hotel at 3.30pm on 8 August. They visited the Herbs and Spice thai restaurant at 7.30pm that day. On the 9th they visited Pak’n’Save at 3.30pm, at 4pm they went to Skyline gondola and luge.On the 10th, the monday, the made a day trip to Taupō and made a boat trip. All the people on the boat trip have been identified and contacted.
Dr Bloomfield says testing is available to any businesses that request it.

He says for the first time this morning the ministry has used the alert function on the NZ Covid Tracer app.

He says another 338,000 people have registered on the app.

GSR is continuing to lead efforts on genome sequencing.

“What we do know is that the pattern of the genome sequencing of the new cases most closely resembles the cases in the UK and Australia.”
13 new confirmed cases in the community – all are in Auckland and are linked to the four people confirmed on Tuesday.
Ardern says people are asked to stay put – there are reports from police of some people trying to travel to their holiday home.
“Going hard and early is still the best course of action… remember things will get worse before they get better.”
“We have a plan, we have acted quickly, and we will continue to roll out that plan.”

There will be another briefing at 1pm tomorrow, followed by a further extra briefing at a time yet to be confirmed.
Dr Bloomfield says at this stage it is not thought necessary to expand restrictions, despite the movements of positive cases to Waikato, Rotorua and Taupō.
“At this point in time it seems very very clear that the focus of the outbreak is in Auckland.”
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Dr Bloomfield confirmed to Morning Report earlier that a student at Mount Albert Grammar school had also tested positive. The student was a close contact of the family of four in South Auckland who had already tested positive, he said.

Cool store company Americold has also confirmed that three more employees have tested postive for Covid-19, but is still waiting for the test results of more than half the staff.

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There is now a total of four staff at the Mt Wellington facility with the virus.

Testing stations continue to be swamped today with long queues trailing outside.

Infectious disease experts have been warning that Covid-19 could been have spreading in Auckland for weeks without notice.

Dr Bloomfield told Morning Report that scenario would be a worry and while it was possible, there was “nothing to suggest it’s a long chain of transmission”.

Source: rnz.co.nz Republished by arrangement.

Watch live: Latest Covid-19 Thursday 13th August

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